Abstract
In this symposium, four ketamine researchers summarized their most recent findings. The first speaker, Dr. John Krystal (Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, USA) reported the latest clinical findings of low dose ketamine given alone for
its antidepressant actions. Dr. Krystal was the first to describe the use of low dose ketamine in depression. The second speaker, Dr. Nagahisa Okamoto (Sapporo Suzuki Hospital in Sapporo, Japan) presented his research on the advantages of combined ketamine/ECT vs propofol/ECT in therapy- resistant depressed patients. The third speaker, Dr. Hideo Tsukada (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Shizuoka, Japan) described his brain PET imaging studies in monkeys that indicate ketamine
in low doses is not only an NMDA antagonist but also a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. The latter is a surprising new finding. The fourth speaker, Dr. Edward Domino (Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, USA) reviewed the multiple neuropharmacological mechanisms of action of ketamine that account for its antidepressant effects and some of the puzzles this basic research initiated.
